Ok, so with the exciting evening in Youngstown, we ended up checking into a Hampton Inn, so I woke up still being in Youngstown, Ohio. Ken came by and took us out to one of the local spots for breakfast, it was called “The Yankee.” Had a good ole Ohio breakfast…normal 2 eggs, sausage, etc. Crowd was mostly retired and it is important that they all keep the local businesses going. Youngstown use to be a thriving steel production town…but that industry is pretty much gone and now there are quite a few abandoned areas.

After breakfast, Dan took me over to Randy’s house and we went to the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame (RRHF) so I can see their analytics systems. I had no idea of what the RRHF would be like, it was pretty amazing. The building is all glass, really interesting design. It is right on the shore of Lake Erie and gives amazing views from the upper floors. The RRHF has great exhibitions of everything related to music from original lyrics, clothing, guitars, Elvis’ car, etc. They use analytics to protect open areas that are not behind plexi (guitars, wardrobes, cars) and when a motion alarm is triggered a loud announcement comes on and strobe lights are triggered. Very nice installation!

After visiting the RRHF, Randy and I went to get some lunch at Great Lakes Brewery and had their sausage platter (I am so going to die after this trip)…was told I had to have them as they are known for their sausages (that came out wrong). Also had one of their locally brewed beers, it was very tasty too. After lunch, did some Cleveland sight seeing and then went back to my headquarters at Dan’s.

After relaxing for a bit, watched a movie in Dan’s home theater….very nice! Has a projector system and since it is out in the country, you can really crank up the sound. That was a real treat Also toured the outside grounds a bit and really realized how large and fantastic it all really is. Woods, trails, man made ponds, etc….yep it is all here at Dan’s ranch.

Tomorrow is going to be a relaxing day and catching up on some laundry. Monday, I head back to Chicago in the morning and fly back to Long Beach in the late afternoon.

I definitely will say the Midwest is hands down the most friendly and home feeling type of place I have ever visited.

Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, Click to View More

Alright, day 3 on the journey. Today Dan and I drove over to Youngstown, OH to visit the Butler Art Institute. We met their facilities manager Ken and first had lunch at a spot in the Metro Park System. Beautiful location full of lakes, trails, and various wildlife. Had some chicken pepper soup, was very good!

After lunch and exploring the town, had a tour of the analytics system at the Butler Art Institute. It is pretty amazing in what they have done there. Basically every piece of art work is protected via cameras with motion alarms. When a motion alarm is set off, an in house pager system pages all guards with the gallery name that triggered the alarm, which makes it super easy to investigate. One camera can cover a great area of gallery space and the system is so smart that you can adjust it for sensitivity. Also learned about the control room setup and how motion alarming play a role in view schemes.

After spending the day at The Butler, we all went out for some Youngstown Friday night happy hour. Went to an Itallian place and had some drinks/food. After happy hour Ken took Dan and I around town to show us some of the happening night spots and the proper way to spend an evening in Youngstown. Ken’s quote of the evening was “You are both in mother’s arms now.”

Me, Dan, and Ken

Got up early this morning (5:30 Chicago time…so 3:30 Cali time) and walked around downtown Chicago a bit. Was quite a trip. Windy finally. Lots of business folks going to work. Found a Mc D’s that had a sign of Cubs and White Sox, baseball is definitley a big deal out here. Left the hotel at 7 and was on the road to visit Acuity’s office and then go out to dinner with Steve, ending up at Dan’s place for the nice. Took the I-90 East and was a nice ride…straight mostly. Toll roads were new to me…lots of choices, but cash seemed to be the obvious one. It cost about $15 total in tolls to go from Chicago to Ohio, not too bad and the road was well maintained (compared to Cali highways at least).

Arrived at Acuity’s office in the afternoon and met with a few of their team members. I was happy to see I made an impact on Justus as his office now has a water fountain too! He also has the USB powererd nerf style rocket launcher that I am a bit jealous of…will have to work on that. Discussed a lot about analytics and how it can be used to protect art work and objects. Pretty amazing technology. Also talked about joystick control for our PTZ cameras (this was for you Mike) and looks like it can be done…just need to use some analog controls…this will make operating the PTZ so much easier.

Steve arrived after our meeting and took me over to his house. Man, it is so beautiful out here right now…and everyone has sooo much space, it is pretty amazing. You have a house and then a HUGE back yard. Maintaining the property lines must take a lot of work…but it is probably very calming too. Nobody seems to be in a bad mood and everything is easy going. You just cannot be in a real hurry out here.

We all went out to dinner at Steve’s nephews restaurant and it was a bistro that had soooo much food it was impossible to eat it all. Was great to catch up with Steve, he always has an interesting story and is pretty much the modern MacGyver. While on job sites he is always danging from a bucket 100 feet in the air being attacked by falcons, thunderstorms, angry workers, you name it! Steve can pretty much do anything it would seem.

After dinner, I followed steve for a ways and then Dan drove out and I followed him to my home til Monday. We were suppose to meet up at a gas station, but did not quite work out so well and instead Dan came running out in the street waving arms and all…I locked my doors as I though we had an Ohio maniac on our hands…but no, it was Dan. So through the woods to Dan’s house we go…it is really amazing. Very quite and definitley away from anything resembling a major city. There is a forrest in the back yard, a pond, and lots of animals (inside and outside). They are definitely animal lovers here, I learned a lot about fish. You can even do surgery on award winning gold fish to keep them going, who knew?

On Friday, will be going to Youngstown, OH to visit the Butler Art Institute and will be looking at their analytics system they have installed to see how it all ties together. Theirs also pages security guards upon a breach. Curious how that works. I believe we are staying over there for the night and then cruising back to Ohio on Saturday, visiting the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame on Sunday.

Will keep you all posted!

Steve’s Back Yard - Click to View More

I have now arrived in Chicago, IL. Is not that windy for a windy city, maybe another day. Airplane ride was perfect, no issues at all. Took me an hour to get our of the Chicago airport between getting my bag and renting a car. I met my CDW rep Josie for dinner tonight at Hugo’s forg Bar & Fishouse. I had the best crab cake and filet medallions I have ever had before…so freaken good! After we talked business, Josie’s friend Holly joined us for some drinks. After dinner, we moved to the bar and had drinks/dessert. Vic our bartender was a funny guy and joined us for a photo (see below). After that we went on the search for the perfect margarita. I had a very good margarita at Blue Agave Restaruant which is a restaurant/tequila bar. Was very tasty and worthwhile!

Tomorrow I head to Acuity-VCT headquarters, where I will be meeting with some of their programmers and have some ideas I will be sharing (joystick control for ptz cameras, multiple monitors, etc.). Joining Steve (a.ka. MacGyver) and friends for dinner.

Will keep you all posted.

Holly, Vic (our great bartender), Josie, and I - Click to View More

So here I sit in Long Beach on the start of a combo work/pleasure trip to Chicago and Ohio. The trip started as a pleasure idea to go visit Dan and crew in Ohio of Acuity-VCT. I always joked about going to Ohio and now I am in for a real treat. Then the trip grew to where I started thinking I have airfare to Chicago, so I could visit my CDW rep Josie. So now my plans are to go to Chicago for one night, then to head over to Ohio to look at security camera installs at the Bulter Art Institue and Rock n Roll Hall of Fame. They are both using a system called analytics that sets up motion alarming and pages/sets off sound if a motion alarm is broken…but not your typical motion alarm as this is done with cameras and has variables that are taken into consideration (shadows, lighting differences, etc.). Then I will spend the weekend in Ohio and come back to Santa Barbara on Monday.

I am currently in Long Beach at a Quality Inn after a three and half hour gnarly drive. Not too bad for a cheap room, has wireless Internet and a deadbolt on the door, all a techie ever needs. I fly out on award winning Jet Blue tomorrow (you know the ones that land with the nose gear sideways?) But they do have DISH satellite so at least you can watch the plane on tv

Will keep you updated on my travels!

I am very sad to report that Monte passed away Monday (7/28) morning while en route to the emergency vet. He became ill in the early morning hours. I have personally known Monte for over four years and he so loves arm hair. I am really at a lost as to what else to say as I don’t fully understand the meaning of all of this, but there must be some reasoning behind it. One day I may understand, I just really do not know. Jaime and I are heading back to Santa Barbara, should arrive on Thursday.

I will miss you Monte, you will always be very very special to me!

Today was an awesome drive!  All new to me as I have never been past Phoenix.  It was really cool how the climate changed so dramatically… Started from triple digits in the desert and ended up in the cool upper 60s as we arrived at 7,000 feet elevation.  Drove through a couple of awesome thunderstorms and saw some good lightning with thunder.  For me being from Southern California, this was very exciting (I know you are thinking lame if you live anywhere that has weather).   Monte was very happy the temp dropped as well and we visited many rest stops to stretch our legs.  The first rest stop in New Mexico was our first real encounter with other dogs.  They smelled each other and moved on…only if humans were so easy.

Albuquerque, NM was very nice as it was breezy and right after at t-storm blew through.  Got gasoline for the car there…actually been getting gas whenever we get below 1/2 tank as on the way to Phoenix I almost had a crisis.  No fun being in the middle of nowhere with no petrol.  It is pretty amazing how nice the roads are in other states besides California.  So far, both AZ and NM have had really smooth roads….feels like you are gliding on air.  Maybe California should stop inspecting fruit and put more money into the roads.

Santa Rosa, NM is a trip.  It is on the old Route 66, lots of themed restaurants/gift stores based off of that.  At our Hotel (Holiday Inn Express), there is a Corvette rally…the parking lot is full of awesome classics and newer models too.

Oh..and “Smoove”, this is for you… you can buy FIREWORKS pretty much ANYWHERE in New Mexico!  How freaken awesome is that?  I unforutnately did not stop to buy any though as I had a image of me buying a m-80 and then having a disaster.  Maybe next time.

Jaime also had a great idea today…he has a small portable computer that can play movies.  The car has an aux input, so connect that to the headphone jack of the computer and boom…instant movie theater!  Now Jaime and Monte have something to watch while on the road.  The sound is amazing as the car has simulated surround sound, nothing like having some explosions going on in the back seat (an no, it is not Monte passing wind…although that is a frequent present from him).

Tomorrow we go to Tulsa, OK…will be driving through the Texas Panhandle…maybe we need some big ole hats.

Highlighted pictures of the day (click on any to go to the album and view all):

T-Storm in New Mexico

Ahhh…sound asleep, totally forgot where I was. I feel something furry next to me. I don’t remember meeting anybody furry the night before. Woah! The furry item just licked me…I open one eye. Oh, that is right, I am in AZ with Monte. I fall back asleep. Another lick. OK, what is up? What time is it? 3:30 AM. I ask what do you want? He looks at me with his deep dark eyes, and looks at the door. I figure it out….potty break. He must not have believed me at 11 PM when I said to go before bed. Oh well, it is peaceful at 3:30 AM outside of the hotel…all that is out there is me, Monte, the wind, and some thunder in the distance….

Monte's Deep Eyes

The adventure has officially begun!  This morning was a bit hectic…but finally made it out the door.  Got up at 5:30 AM and went over to Monte’s house to feed him and get the car ready to go.  After that, came back to my place to get luggage and then picked up my driving buddy Jaime.  Ahhh, now we are off…well not quite!  I forgot all the water at my house…U-turn, get water..now we are really off.

Monte handled the first day quite well.  It was definitely a big shock for him and climate change.  The desert is super hot (it is Summer afterall)…top temp from the car was 113 degrees!  The least appealing part of the trip was being forced to use a rest stop in AZ with it being 106 degrees…now that is NASTY (I will not even go into the flies or some strange crawling bug on the ground)!!!!!!!!  The highlight of the day was having dinner with my good friend Tammy, who relocated to Phoenix, AZ about four years ago. The Red Rood Inn is very accomodating and let us use their breakfast dining room to have dinner in…which was super nice.

It is definitely hot and am looking forward to it getting coolor day by day. Tomorrow we leave for a long stretch of about 540 miles to Santa Rosa, NM. More to come soon…

Below are the highlighted pics of the day, feel free to click on any of them to go to the full album.

Dad and Monte

Damn, 113 Degrees!

Tammy and Monte

Yep, it is true.  I am driving across the United States with my good friend Jaime and Monte the boxer.  Will be going the Southern route from Santa Barbara, CA to Cape Cod, MA.  Will be quite a trip with stops in Phoenix, AZ - Santa Rosa, NM - Tulsa, OK - Terre Haute, IN - Cleveland, OH - Albany, NW - and finally Cape Cod, MA.  We will complete the trip in six nights, seven days.  After arriving in Cape Cod, will be spending a few days there and then fly back home to Santa Barbara.  I will be blogging daily as the adventure unfolds. 

I visited with Monte and took the car out for a spin that I will be driving last Saturday.  Monte is definitely ready as earlier in the day he totally checkout the car himself to make sure all was in good order.  As you can see in the photos below, Monte is very sophisticated and ready to go!

Monte Ready 2 Travel!

When R We Leaving???